The present invention relates to a continually adjustable ball-type planetary gear set.
Known planetary gear sets of the type under discussion include a housing in which a first driving shaft is supported for rotation which in turn supports rings carrying raceways which engage planetary balls. A second shaft is supported in the housing in alignment with the first shaft and is a driven shaft. The rings, the two of which are race rings and the two of which are guide rings are positioned on the driving and driven shafts, respectively, at respective adjustable axial distance from each other so that the raceways of the respective rings engage the planetary balls from above and from below.
One of conventional planetary gear sets of this type is disclosed in DB GM82 12 322. The disadvantage of this planetary gear set is that the construction is a system which is multiply redundant from the static point of view and presents the problems of considerable noise generation, significant wear, friction corrosion and the like. To limit these problems high manufacture precisions have been required for conventional planetary gear sets of this type.